State Lead Program

Under a variety of scenarios, the Division of Oil and Public Safety (OPS) may become directly involved in performing investigations to determine the presence, extent and severity of petroleum contamination and the steps that are necessary to remediate such contamination. Depending upon the situation, a project can be initiated and conducted within one of two programs: the State Lead program or the State Lead for Responsible Parties program.

The State Lead (SL) program assists owners of petroleum-impacted properties who never owned or operated a petroleum storage tank (PST) system on the property. To qualify for the SL program, a property owner must apply and become eligible to the PST Fund (Fund) as a person who bears no responsibility for the release. Once eligible to the Fund, the eligible party must request, in writing, that OPS conduct assessment and remediation activities on the property.

The State Lead for Responsible Parties (SLRP) program provides assistance to small business owners/operators and non-owners/operators with active or closed PST facilities. The SLRP program allows OPS to take over the day-to-day management of a cleanup by recovering costs for the necessary work directly from the Fund in accordance with the RP's Fund eligibility. The RP must pay OPS directly for any costs that OPS incurs which exceed the amount reimbursable by the Fund.